21 Search results for "fetishization"

“Sex is what makes us human.”  This, of course, is an absurd claim. And yet, it’s a lie that many believe. A lie that I have heard many times, in one form or another. I continually find myself having to argue that sex and sexuality are not and never will be factors in whether or […]

by Jacques P. Lesure It’s no secret that boxing is a gladiator-esque game that draws in hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Those who watch the sport must remain flexible to a wide range of unpredictable outcomes such as knockouts, excessive bleeding, and swollen faces.  It was reported that the boxing rematch Deontay Wilder […]

by Avery Ware I sat up in his bed and glared at him through squinted eyes, “What do you mean you only sleep with Black guys? Are you a fetish queen?” Boldly he responded, “Yeah, I probably am.”  I’ll spare you the curse words that followed that statement. I was more angry with myself than […]

This essay contains discussions of sexual violence as well as racist violence and fetishization  I personally know of fewer than five Black people who identify as asexual, and I’ve only met two of them in person. The others remain virtual friends for now, but I hope to meet them someday. Of course, these are just […]

I always think of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) whenever someone pretends to be a Black woman or disingenuously evokes our aesthetics. While there are many who outright pretend to be Black women, there are also those convinced that they can somehow actually become Black women and others who simply benefit from appropriating our […]

By Cosima Smith Audre Lorde is my personal heroine. I met her writing for the first time in my first year of university, and it has been a companion helping me work through my own internalized issues with my Blackness, my queerness, and my poorness ever since. Lorde was the first reflection of myself I […]

by Maximillian Matthews This essay contains discussions of racialized sexual violence and mentions r/pe “There is probably no greater (or more misleading) body of sexual myths in the world today than those which proliferated around the figure of the American Negro. This means that he is penalized for the guilty imagination of the white people […]

by Donnie MoreIand I find myself humming the theme of Good Times, quite a bit. It’s calming, in the way only Black Baptist Church Choirs can be calming. In fact, I find all of it pretty calming—Good Times, that is—because it’s so unequivocally Black, that it feels a part of my cultural genome.  Now, I […]

Editor’s Note: March is National Disabilities Month and our themes at Black Youth Project are Ableism & Physical and Mental Health. We are interested in publishing works that address these topics and the things surrounding them. We want to hear from you! Send us your pitches at info@blackyouthproject.com By Jade Perry After our shower, she […]

by JeCorey Holder

Millennials are more supportive of LGBT community members than the generations before us, but we still have a lot of work to do.   According to a recently released study by GenForward, “Millennial Attitudes on LGBT Issues: Race, Identity, and Experience,” just over half of Black Americans (53%) and 50% of Latinx Millennials believe that […]

Content Warning: racialized sexual violence, Jeffrey Dahmer, dismemberment, necrophilia, cannibalism, hebephilia  This is perhaps the most gruesome thing I have ever written, and I ask you to bear with me. It’s an extension of my discussion of erotic race play, which I assure you, I had not intended to return to so soon. In my […]